Education/News/April 2019/Wikimedia+Education Conference highlights

Wikimedia+Education Conference highlights

Summary: April 5-7th the Basque Wikimedians User Group organized the very first Wikimedia+Education Conference. 130 participants from more than 50 countries gave their impressions about what is being done on education within Wikimedia projects, and discussed about our outreach role. Here you can find some highlights.

Group photo

Opening ceremony

One of the 50+ presentations

From 5 to 7 April 2019 the Basque Wikimedians Users Group held, in collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation, the first conference on Education and Wikimedia in Donostia. During 3 days about 130 people debated about the relationship between Wikimedia and education, about how Wikimedia can be used in the educational process and about how Wikimedia can improve with this participation. There was debate on children's encyclopaedias, on research carried out on how definitions are negotiated, on projects at a national level or on how some universities are beginning to incorporate Wikipedia as part of their curriculum.

We held some pre-conference events in different universities. On Thursday we chatted with African wikimedians at HUHEZI, and specially professors were delighted with their explanations. We also organized a photo exhibition about #WikiLovesPhotography at Carlos Santamaría Library and a small gathering with students to know what is being done about Human Rights in South America with Wikimedia.

Friday was the Opening Ceremony at the Donostia City Hall. Members of the city government, Basque Government and Wikimedia Foundation addressed to the audience, who also heard a great keynote by Mary Burns.

Saturday was the main Conference day. We started with Katherine Maher's keynote, but we also had a great panel about Children Encyclopedias, talking specially about Txikipedia, Basque children encyclopedia inside Wikipedia. Presentations, workshops and poster presentations made the day full of opportunities, before finishing at the cider-house!

We finished the Conference on Sunday morning, continuing with presentations, panels and workshops. Dashboard and PetScan workshops were full of attendants. After lunch, we headed to the Korrika, were 40 participants runned to fundraise money for Basque-language adult-teaching.